U.S. Marshals Service Finds Missing Child More Than Four Years Later

Corpus Christi, TX — The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) has reported on January 20 that a child missing for over four years was safely recovered. The child was recovered in Mexico and has been returned to family residing in Corpus Christi, after more than four years of law enforcement investigation facilitated by ongoing international collaboration.

The investigation was launched after Neftaly Garcia kidnaped his daughter and fled to the region of La Angostura in Chiapas, Mexico. At about the same time, police took two people into custody in connection with an alleged murder-for-hire plot involving the child's mother, Angela Buitrago-Paredes. Buitrago-Paredes reported her daughter missing to the police days later when Garcia did not return the daughter as per their shared custody arrangement.

As the investigation unfolded, the U.S. Marshals Service took over lead agency responsibility at the request of the Portland Police Department and joined forces with domestic and international partners to follow up leads, seek legal recourse and further develop relationships with Mexican law enforcement. They also verified Buitrago-Paredes was continuing to pursue legal remedies in both the United States and Mexico, and she had ongoing contact with Mexican authorities in an attempt to find her child.

A critical moment came when Mexican officials initiated a request for a provisional arrest warrant pursuant to treaty that was brought through the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of International Affairs. That legal progress, combined with ongoing investigative pressure and cooperation on resources, ultimately resulted in Garcia's arrest in Mexico and the safe recovery of the child. Pursuant to court orders entered in both Mexico and the United States, the child was placed into Buitrago-Paredes's physical custody.

The U.S. Marshals Service recognizes law enforcement authorities in Chiapas, Mexico, Portland Police Department (Brownsville charging department), Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office (charging department), the U.S. Marshals Service Gulf Coast Violent Offenders and Fugitive Task Force Corpus Christi Division, the Gulf Coast Task Force Missing Child Unit in Brownsville, the United States Marshals Mexico Foreign Field Office, the United States Marshals Eastern District of Tennessee, the United States Marshals District of Arizona, the United States Marshals District of Colorado, the Galveston County District Attorney’s Office, the Department of Justice Office of International Affairs, the Federal Bureau of Investigations Corpus Christi Field Office, the Interpol National Central Bureau of Mexico, and the National Institute of Migration Mexico.

The U.S. Marshals-led Gulf Coast Violent Offenders and Fugitive Task Force in Corpus Christi, Texas, is integrated by remarkable investigators from the Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Corpus Christi Police Department, Aransas County Sheriff’s Office, Jim Wells County Sheriff’s Office, Nueces County Sheriff’s Office, Kleberg County Attorney’s Office, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and other partner federal agencies that work together for the protection of our communities.